


On the Backs of Angels

by enigmaticblue



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-08
Updated: 2010-04-08
Packaged: 2017-10-08 19:06:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/78618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enigmaticblue/pseuds/enigmaticblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the apocalypse, Dean goes fishing--for real this time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On the Backs of Angels

**Author's Note:**

> Set after 4.22, "Lucifer Rising". Title is taken from the Over the Rhine song, "Poughkeepsie".

_"...I ride on the backs of the angels tonight. I take to the sky with all of their might. No more drowning in my sorrow, no more drowning in my fright. I'll just ride on the backs of the angels each night."_ ~Over the Rhine, "Poughkeepsie"

Dean wasn't sure how long he'd been at the lake. It was, by some miracle, the same one he'd been at in his dream, the one where Cas had come to him to request a meeting. At the time, he'd figured that he'd made it up out of bits and pieces of places he'd been over the course of his life. (So many places, it would be easy to create the _perfect_ spot from scraps of half-remembered hunts and treks through the woods.)

But after he'd killed Lucifer and averted the end of the world, and Dean had been certain that sheer exhaustion would kill him, Castiel had said, "Do you remember the lake?" And, of course, Dean did, just as he remembered every moment he'd shared with Cas, except for the first (the most important). It turned out that there was a God, and that He was pleased with Dean, and that He didn't hate Castiel after all, no matter what Zachariah had said.

Castiel had given him directions, and promised that his needs would be provided for, but he hadn't offered to accompany him, and Dean had recognized the moment for what it was: a goodbye. He'd shared a farewell of a different, less-permanent sort with Sam, who had said that he needed time alone. After five years of sharing close quarters--hell, after what the last two years had done to them--Dean had known another separation was coming.

So he had said his goodbyes, too tired to feel anything but relief at the chance to drive to something other than a horror show, and found himself here. It was a little bit of heaven on earth as far as Dean was concerned.

Dean knew he'd get bored eventually. Fishing would get old, and he'd start hearing rumors about monsters and maybe the stray demon that had survived the wrath of God's angels. He would want to go on a hunt, and then he'd find Sammy--or maybe Sam would find him first--and it would be like the old days. Right now, however, Dean was still waiting to get bored.

"Hello, Dean."

A quirk of his lips was the only greeting he had for Castiel. It wasn't nearly as much of a surprise as he'd thought it would be.

"You look well."

"It's all the beauty sleep I've been getting." Dean didn't tell the angel that there had been no nightmares since the end of the war. He figured that Cas already knew.

It was deja vu all over again, as Castiel stood silently next to Dean, hands in his pockets, while Dean held the fishing rod in a loose, easy grip. "Come to tell me there's another apocalypse?"

"No. There was only the one."

"Good, because I'm not done fishing yet."

"I looked in on Sam, as you requested."

Dean closed his eyes briefly, wishing that his brother had found the same measure of peace that he had. They both had regrets; maybe it was part of the Winchester curse. But Sam seemed to feel that it was his personal mission to repair all the damage he felt he'd caused, moving from hunt to hunt with the same focus their father had displayed. He wished that he was strong enough to follow Sam around, but he was used up. And maybe Sam needed the hunts the same way Dean needed to fish.

"Is he still in one piece?"

"Yes." There was a pause, and Castiel said in his thoughtful way, "I think he is also beginning to find peace."

"Yeah?" Dean rose and reeled in his line, having felt a nibble that told him his bait was probably gone. "That's good. I'll have to catch up with him one of these days."

"There is no hurry, Dean."

"Yeah, yeah." He knew how the speech went: warrior of God, deserving of rest, blah, blah, blah. In short, he could have whatever the hell he wanted because he'd killed Lucifer and saved the whole damn world. Shrugging his shoulders, he tried to shake off the restlessness that had always overtaken him when Cas was around. He owed the angel his life, his soul, and yet he knew that he'd feel bereft when Castiel inevitably had to leave. Dean needed the quiet, and yet he hated being alone.

Just went to show that life was a bitch, even after you'd saved the world.

The hand on his shoulder was a surprise. Warmth radiated through his shirt and jacket, and although Dean gave brief consideration to shaking it off, he paused, waiting. "What is it?"

"You are not alone."

"I'm the only human for miles around, remember?" Dean prompted, turning to face him. "I'm alone. I wanted it that way."

"And if I offered to stay?"

He froze, searching Castiel's face, his blue eyes. Cas never had been all that great at human expressions, but Dean could read more than stoicism on his face. Fighting back to back, running together, facing enemies on all sides, bonded people--even if one of those people wasn't human. Panic rose up; Dean wasn't going to allow someone else to make that kind of sacrifice for him. "Not for me, Cas. Don't you _dare_ Fall for me."

"And if I stayed without Falling?"

Dean raised his eyebrows, relaxing slightly. "You guys really are under new management, aren't you?"

Castiel very nearly smiled. "I would say that it is very old management, but new--what do you call them?" Dean shook his head, waiting for the angel to dredge up the term from rusty human memory. "Middle men?"

"Yeah." Dean stared at the angel, hardly daring to believe what was being offered. "So, you'd stay?"

"For as long as you want me here."

Dean hadn't even dared hope for this, and now... Now, he had no idea what to do, other than go back to what he'd been doing. "Have you ever fished before, Cas?"

He was unsurprised to see that another chair had appeared next to his own, as well as a second rod and reel. Castiel sat down in the deck chair gingerly, as though he wasn't quite sure it would hold his weight. "No. I have not." His eyes found Dean's. "What do I do?"

Dean smiled, remembering how Bobby had taught him how to bait a hook. He wasn't sure what it said about him that he was teaching an angel of the Lord how to do the same thing. Or what it said that Cas' presence made missing Sam a little more bearable. "Let me show you."


End file.
